Pochalla County, Jonglei State
DEMOGRAPHY
2008 NBS Census population: 66,201
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 20,357
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 79,562
Ethnic groups: Anyuak/Anywaa
Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 3,912 IDPs (+1,106 Q1 2020) and 1,568 returnees (-3,346 Q1 2020)
IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3)
ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS
Pochalla County is one of two counties that form the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA). It borders Ethiopia to the north and east, Pibor County in GPAA to the south and west, and Akobo County in Jonglei State to the northwest. The Akobo River flows along its eastern border and the Oboth and Kong-Kong rivers track through the western parts of the county. Its landscape is characterized by highlands and foothills with a mixture of forest, bush shrubs and grasslands.
The county is a part of the maize, sorghum, fishing and natural resources livelihood zone (FEWSNET 2018). According to a 2018 report from FAO and WFP, 60% of households engage in agriculture, increasing to 65% by 2021. Gross cereal yields were at 0.85 tonnes per hectare in 2021, with no data for 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). Some livestock is also kept in a subsistence manner, mainly goats with some sheep and chickens. Livelihoods are supplemented with gathering, hunting and fishing. Artisanal gold mines operate in the area around Pochalla Town and along the border with Ethiopia with gold mostly traded in markets in Gambella (HRW 2005). The diversity of livelihoods in the area contributes to slightly higher food security compared to neighbouring counties. Typical livelihood hazards include crop pests and diseases, floods, conflict and insecurity, and mining accidents.
IPC projections for Pochalla County are at Crisis levels (IPC Phase 3) of food insecurity as of November 2022, and are projected to remain at Crisis levels until at least July 2023. In recent years, unpredictable weather patterns – alternating between dry spells and severe flooding – have made it difficult for farmers to adequately time their planting and harvesting seasons, leading to decreases in crop yields in the county. In 2013, Norwegian People’s Aid introduced ox-plough farming to Pochalla County in a bid to move away from hand cultivation and increase yields. In 2019, the Presbyterian Church operating in the area began supporting community initiatives to boost agricultural production, including establishing a model farm. UNMAS has marked Pochalla County as a priority area for the removal of explosive remnants of war (TDI 2020). Periods of food insecurity have led households to turn to coping mechanisms such as foraging for wild foods to supplement their diets and poaching game in nearby Boma National Park.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES
The county’s headquarters is located in Pochalla town in Pochalla Payam on the border with Ethiopia. The main market is located in the town although people also trade in Boma and Pibor towns in neighbouring Pibor County and will regularly cross the eastern border with Gambella in Ethiopia.
Pochalla became a part of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) as a result of a 2014 peace agreement, and then a part of Boma State in 2015 before returning to the 10-state arrangement as part of the GPAA. The deterioration of roads and soaring inflation have limited the supply of goods in Pochalla. In 2020, traders in Pochalla county report running out of stock in their shops because of poor conditions on roads connecting the county with Ethiopia and Juba and the weakness of the South Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar, making it too expensive to import goods (VOA 2020).
Pochalla county is home to twenty-one (16) primary schools, and one (1) secondary school in Pochalla Payam. Pochalla currently does not have any Early Childhood Development centres.
Pochalla County was reported to have nine (9) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among them are eight (8) PHCUs and one (1) PHCC in March 2022. This means that there were an estimated 1.13 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.63 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Pochalla County.
OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023 estimates that there are approximately 48,800 people in Pochalla County with humanitarian needs (down from 58,300). This figure represents roughly 61% of the estimated population of the county reported in the HNO, which is a significant increase on the previous years. In recent years, refugees from the Anyuak community on the Ethiopian side of the border have fled to Pochalla seeking safety, which places additional pressure on local infrastructure and services.
CONFLICT DYNAMICS
Pochalla County is home to the Anyuak Kingdom, a minority ethnic enclave that historically extended beyond Akobo and into Ethiopia’s Gambella Region. A substantial majority of the Anyuak are based in Gambella, and have complex relations with members of the Nuer community, whose presence increased in Gambella during the early stages of the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005). Regional geopolitics – alongside local ethno-political agendas and rivalries – have reverberated across both sides of the border. These dynamics are themselves subsumed within longer running processes of migration (and memories of resistance on the part of the Anyuak community to Nuer expansion in the 19th century, which pushed the Anyuak into present-day Gambella), and the often violent reconfiguration of state power that has occurred in both countries (Feyissa 2010).
Parts of the Anyuak community were involved in both the Anya-Nya rebellion during the first Sudanese civil war (1955-1972), and were active during the early stages of the second civil war, with the SPLM/A seizing Pochalla shortly after the initial mutiny in Bor in 1983. The Sudanese military (operating alongside Ethiopian Anyuak militia) retook Pochalla in 1992, though the town remained under SPLM/A control after its recapture in 1996. The Anyuak were reported to have suffered during both SPLM/A and Sudanese government periods of control of the area (ICG 2014, p.24). Within Gambella, the Nuer and Anyuak were largely aligned to opposing sides during the second civil war (which was partially fought from Gambella), with many Nuer communities enjoying the support of the SPLM/A and their Ethiopian government patrons. However, regime change in Ethiopia in 1991 and the ensuing SPLM/A split would lead to the balance of power within Gambella shifting towards the Anyuak, and ushered in a period marked by increasingly severe rounds of ethnicised conflict (Feyissa 2009; Markakis 2011, pp. 341-348). Amid political realignments in Gambella, serious violence in the region beginning in late 2003 resulted in Ethiopian Anyuak refugees arriving in the Pochalla area following reported attacks by Ethiopian security forces, establishing conditions for a convergence between the Ethiopian and Sudanese Anyuak communities, whose political outlook and priorities had become increasingly distinct (HRW 2005; Feyissa 2010).
On the South Sudanese side of the border, the Anyuak have faced tensions with parts of the neighbouring Murle and Lou Nuer groups. This includes land disputes with the Lou Nuer in Akobo County, which escalated into conflict (variously dated as beginning in the 1970s or early 1980s) that persisted into the early stages of the second civil war, and resulted in the displacement of many Anyuak residents of Akobo to Pochalla and Gambella (Arensen 2015, p.8; Hutchinson 2012, pp.4-5). After the war concluded, tensions over land were reported after members of the Anyuak who had been displaced to Ethiopia attempted to resettle in areas of Akobo (Sudan Tribune 2006). In October 2013, the issue escalated significantly when Lou Nuer youth allegedly killed the Anyuak paramount chief, causing thousands of Anyuak to flee to Ethiopia (ICG 2014, p.25). In November 2015, a localised incident was reported to have escalated into killings of members of the Anyuak community in Akobo town (Radio Tamazuj 2015). A significant Anyuak population continues to reside in Akobo’s Alali/Allale Payam, which is mostly cut-off from Akobo town due to physical access constraints and unresolved conflict (OCHA 2021).
Relations between the Murle and Anyuak communities have also experienced periods of strain, with abductions and attacks on Anyuak farms and livestock often being attributed to Murle raiders (note that the tendency for raids in Jonglei to be attributed to the Murle is discussed further in the profile for Pibor County). This was exacerbated in 2013 by spillover from the conflict between the predominantly Murle South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army (SSDM/A) Cobra Faction and the government (ICG 2014; Small Arms Survey 2013). Despite mounting grievances, the Lou Nuer, Murle and Anyuak participated in the Jonglei-wide Liliir Peace Conference of May 2000 in a bid to limit violence. More recently, a December 2020 peace conference resolved to bring an end to raiding and abductions (Radio Tamazuj 2021). Local sources report this conference was held in Juba, and – in addition to the participation of the Murle and Anyuak communities – also involved other communities from Jonglei (including from the Nuer and Dinka) and some communities from Greater Equatoria. However, and as discussed below, relations have continued to deteriorate between parts of the Nuer, Anyuak, and Murle communities.
At the outset of the national conflict (2013-2018), many Anyuak sided with the government and drove out Nuer soldiers from Pochalla, likely in response to the recent violence involving the Lou Nuer (Arensen 2015, p.11). This was in spite of Anyuak grievances with their perceived marginalisation within Jonglei State, and with the alleged conduct and ethnic composition of SPLA forces stationed in Pochalla (ICG 2014, p.25). Limited numbers of Anyuak did join the SPLA-IO in March 2014, however, though the SPLA maintained its garrison in Pochalla for the entirety of the conflict. In May 2014, the SPLA-IO alleged that government forces executed 40 Nuer soldiers in Pochalla (Sudan Tribune 2014).
Although relatively insulated from the direct effects of the national conflict, Pochalla nevertheless experienced political instability and violence during the conflict. In May 2014, the SSDM/A-CF negotiated a peace agreement with the government which resulted in the creation of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) in May 2014. The agreement incorporated Pochalla County into the GPAA despite the limited involvement of the Anyuak in the conflict, and also partitioned the county into Pochalla North and Pochalla South counties. This partition was reported to have aggravated divisions with the Anyuak community over residual territorial claims in Akobo, after Alali/Allale was assigned as the administrative headquarters of Pochalla North (Todisco 2015, pp.53-54).
Fighting subsequently erupted within the Anyuak community in Pochalla town in mid-2015 (Sudan Tribune 2015). In March 2016, fighting between communities of Pochalla North and Pochalla South displaced Pochalla town residents (Radio Tamazuj 2016a). Local sources report that the conflict was linked to political disputes between Anyuak factions aligned to the GPAA and those linked to the traditional monarchy. In April 2016, armed men from Pibor were reported to have attacked 13 villages in Gambella, killing dozens and abducting over 100 children. In May 2016, 3,000 Ethiopian troops entered Pochalla County in search of these abducted children. The troops eventually left later that month, but their presence was a strain on the community (Radio Tamazuj 2016b).
Since 2022, security in and around Pochalla has deteriorated markedly, due to a combination of spillover effects from fighting in Gambella (which has seen fighting between parts of the Anyuak and Murle, and parts of the Anyuak and Eastern Jikany Nuer communities); discontent among parts of the Anyuak elite relating to the GPAA; and tensions between the SSPDF and some residents of Pochalla. Escalating conflict between parts of the Murle and Anyuak communities has affected Pochalla, south-eastern Pibor County, and border areas of Gambella. This included an attack on the Anyuak King’s palace in July 2022 (Radio Tamazuj 2022a). In January 2023, suspected Anyuak militia from Ethiopia (including men allegedly wearing Ethiopian police uniforms) torched Nyat village in Pibor County’s Boma Payam, with 23 people killed in fighting (Radio Tamazuj 2023a).
In 2022 and 2023, political tensions escalated once again in Pochalla. Local sources indicate these tensions were connected to the earlier conflict in 2015 and 2016, and were linked to disputes between elements of the Anyuak elite relating to the GPAA (with some members of the Anyuak community calling for the secession of Pochalla from the GPAA) overlapping with inter-personal rivalries and resurfacing tensions between some residents of the Pochalla and the military. Fighting between the SSPDF and Anyuak in June 2022 killed five people in contested circumstances (Radio Tamazuj 2022b), whilst a series of attacks on current and former officials were reported over the following the year, including the killing of the commissioner of Pochalla South (Eye Radio 2023a). Local sources indicated that the involvement of local youth in the incident contributed to deteriorating relations between parts of the Anyuak youth and the SSPDF. In September 2023, heavy fighting between Anyuak youth and the SSPDF broke out in and around Pochalla town (Eye Radio 2023b), amid reports that a former SSPDF commander was killed by soldiers in the town (Radio Tamazuj 2023b). Insecurity continued for several weeks, though some civilians who had been displaced to Ethiopia were reported to have returned to the area following a rotation of security forces and conciliatory statements by the newly appointed SSPDF commander for the area (Radio Tamazuj 2023c).
ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS
Payams: Pochalla (County Headquarters), Adongo, Akiela, Burator, Omiela
UN OCHA 2020 map of Pochalla County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-pochalla-county-reference-map-march-2020
Roads:
- A primary road runs southwards to Boma town in Pibor County, which was deemed impassable during both the rainy and dry season of 2022 and 2023, respectively.
- A secondary road connects Pochalla town to Akobo town to the north. Seasonal road conditions are unknown.
- A tertiary road runs westward to Pibor. Seasonal road conditions are unknown.
- A short tertiary road runs north and south of Pochalla town into other parts of the county, with parts of the road running through the Gambella Region of Ethiopia. The condition of the road is unknown.
UBNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Pochalla
REFERENCES
Arensen, M. (2015). Historical Grievances and Fragile Agreements: An Analysis of Local Conflict Dynamics in Akobo. NRC. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Eye Radio. (2023a). Pochalla South Commissioner Ojulu Ochalla assassinated. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Eye Radio. (2023b). Intense fighting reported between SSPDF and Pochalla youth. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
FAO/WFP. (2023). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 31 July 2023. See equivalent versions of the CFSAM report online for data from previous years.
FEWSNET. (2018). Livelihoods Zone Map and Descriptions for the Republic of South Sudan (Updated). Retrieved 10 July 2023.
HRW, Human Rights Watch. (2005). Targeting the Anuak Human Rights Violations and Crimes against Humanity in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Hutchinson, S.E. (2012). ‘A Guide to the Nuer of Jonglei State’. Paper presented at USAID Jonglei Conference, Nairobi, 19-21 March. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
ICG, International Crisis Group. (2014). South Sudan: Jonglei – “We Have Always Been at War”. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Markakis, J. (2011). Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers. Oxford: James Currey,
OCHA (2021). IRNA Report for Alali Payam, Akobo, 17 February 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2015). Calls for investigation of alleged ethnic killings in Akobo. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2016a). Death toll rises to 6 in Pochalla fight. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2016b). Residents fear presence of Ethiopian troops in Pochalla. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Anyuak-Murle peace conference concludes in Pochalla. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2022a). Attack on Anyuak king’s palace leaves 3 dead. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2022b). 5 killed after SSPDF, youth clash in Pochalla. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2023a). Humanitarian situation dire after Jebel Boma attack. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2023b). Former Pochalla SSPDF commander shot dead. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2023c). Pochalla peaceful after two months of unrest. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Small Arms Survey. (2013). SSDM/A-Cobra faction profile. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Sudan Tribune. (2006). Sudan’s Anyuak accuse Lou-Nuer of occupying ten villages. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Sudan Tribune. (2014). South Sudan rebels accuse government troops of raping women. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Sudan Tribune. (2015). Three wounded in Jonglei’s Pochalla clashes. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
TDI, The Development Institute (2020). Pochalla: A Journey Through a Minefield. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
VOA. (2020). Starvation Stalks Counties in South Sudan cut off by Floods, Insecurity. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
REPORTS on POCHALLA
Gordon, R. (2014). In the eye of the storm: An analysis of internal conflict in South Sudan’s Jonglei State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Feyissa, D. (2010). ‘More state than the state?: The Anywaa’s call for the rigidification of the Ethio-Sudanese border’ in Feyissa, D. and Hoehne, V. (eds) Borders and Borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa, 27-43. Rochester, NY: James Currey.
Feyissa, D. (2009). ‘Conflict and Identity Politics; The case of Anywaa-Nuer Relations in Gambela, Western Ethiopia’ in Schlee, G. and Watson, E. (eds) Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-East Africa: Sudan, Uganda and the Ethiopia-Sudan Borderlands (Volume 3), 181-203. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Human Rights Watch. (2005). Targeting the Anuak Human Rights Violations and Crimes against Humanity in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Mawa, I.J. (2014). Reports on Food Security & Livelihoods Assessment in Pochalla County. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
McCallum, J. (2017). The Murle and the Security Complex in the South Sudan-Ethiopia Borderlands. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Norwegian People’s Aid. (2022). IRNA Report: Pochalla county – GPAA, 19th September 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
Perner, C. (multiple dates). Anyuak – Living on Earth in the Sky (eight volumes). Basel: Schwabe.
Perner, C. (2017). Why Did You Come If You Leave Again?: The Narrative of an Ethnographer’s Footprints Among the Anyuak in South Sudan. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris.
Todisco. C. (2015). Real but Fragile: The Greater Pibor Administrative Area. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
UNMISS. (2012). Incidents of Inter-Communal Violence in Jonglei State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
* Note: The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Population Estimation Survey (PES) was published in April 2023 based on data collected in May-June 2021. This uses a different method to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Population Working Group (PWG) figures produced based on a combination of 2008 census data and population movement data up to 2022. The large discrepancies are primarily attributable to these different methods rather than changes in the actual population numbers over time and have been disputed by some civil society and analysts. Although the later PWG figures were produced more recently for the HNO 2023, at the request of the Government of South Sudan the data and method used by the PES is being used as the basis for the Common Operational Dataset (COD) for the UN system for the HNO 2024 and likely beyond. For further detail on this and other sources used in the county profiles, see the accompanying Methodological Note.